Farmers need some support on input as well as output management, says government official

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As far as loan waivers are concerned I am sure that all of us are now aware that both Prime Minister and Finance Minister have made it pretty explicit that loan waiver is not a solution to the issues related to agriculture.

We understand that there are as many as eight states which have done farm loan waiver and there is clamour for more of loan waiver. However, all of us must appreciate that loan waivers do not do any good in the long run and government is committed to transforming agriculture so that the farmers are able to access credit in a more robust manner and simultaneously are able to utilise it properly and earn remunerative returns on that.

Any kind of loan waiver or any other such palliative is only a one-time solution. In fact, it may not be a full solution either even in the year in which they get this loan waiver.

We have this medium-term target of doubling farmers' income. We shall transform agriculture in the long term such that it comes to become a private enterprise that is based on profits. That is how we have been tackling various issues relating to the agricultural value system, it will address the critical concerns at different stages of agriculture and that includes the pre-production environment, the production segment as well as the post-production segment.

We have had several new schemes rolled out and more would be rolled out. However, since agriculture today faces the challenge of monetisation where the markets have not yet risen up to the expectations such that the farmers are able to earn profitable returns.

Over the last four years in particular, what we have been seeing is that despite tow bad monsoon years the production have been increasing. In 2017-2018 for which we have the data, the country has ended up with record output of food grains, fruits and vegetables, milk and several other commodities.

All of us must appreciate that market prices are predicated upon the demand supply situation. When surpluses outstrip the demand domestically, the prices are bound to subdue and that is what has happened.

However, we also appreciate that agriculture is always vulnerable to certain fluctuations at different stages including market fluctuations. Therefore, there would be a requirement of the government to intervene. It is only with this particular view that government has come out with a very broad based procurement scheme called Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay SanraksHan Abhiyan' (PM-AASHA).

Earlier we had procurements normally confined to paddy and wheat and over a period of time, slowly and steadily certain other commodities like pulses and oil seeds were being procured but at a very nominal rate.

However, in the last two years, the robustness of procuring both pulses and oil seeds has gone up. Now in 2018-2019, PM-AASHA, it includes all the 23 commodities on which the MSP's are generally notified. So, today we are seeing across the country historically high procurement of pulses, historically high procurement of oil seeds, of course, paddy and wheat is happening and the states and FCI have been advised to also procure nutri-cereals like jowar, ragi and bajra whenever the sates agree that they shall integrate the procured commodity to the PDS or any other welfare scheme.

Farmers need to be supported. Let us look at the cost of production, if we would like to rationalise the cost of production, there are two ways. One is, we help the farmers to get better yield so that at the same investment that he is making, he is able to get better returns per quintal. Simultaneously, the input cost - for example, the use of fertilisers, the use of water, use of pesticides all this can be rationalised by way of advising the farmer on how to use them better.

Then also bring about necessary changes to the fertilise control orders or the Seed Act etc. so that more and more private people are able to get into the market, produce them at competitive rates and the government is certainly focusing on all these aspects, in short, it is called ease of doing agri business.

In the short run, you have seen examples as in Telangana, I think that is what many people are talking. We will have to look at what is the outcome of that, we will see what are the studies that have been conducted, as to what extent this input investment support that Telangana government is giving to farmers has helped them.

Now that kind of support - I am not aware of it whether the government would be looking at all these things but then certainly as I was telling you the farmers will need some support on input management as well as output management.

On input management, whether there can be kind of a support is one solution and on the output management, we already have a solution that can we make procurement more robust. While market reforms are a long term solution, in the immediate run we need to focus on better procurement. The PM-AASHA was rolled out only recently is now doing very well.

National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED), which is one of the premier agencies in procurement, the government has given it greater guarantee support so that their operations will increase and they have already procured very high quantum of pulses, very high quantum of oil seeds and we will certainly look at as more and more requests come from states for procurement, they will be considered.

I think the farmers will be looking at that. If the market prices have fallen below the MSP, naturally better procurement would be a support to the farmers.

As far as the schemes are concerned, I will not be able to say anything now because that is a government decision. However, we can only say that as implementing agencies, the state machineries, the executive machineries, is capable of handling anything that the government directs because today we have the advantage of huge databases.

Let us say within our own ministry, we have a database of the farmers based on the soil health card. We have issued soil health card in the last three years to all the farmers in this country. The second cycle of soil health card has begun. We therefore have a database which can be utilised. There are other databases where welfare schemes have been given to the farmer as general citizens. So I think there are different databases available both at the central government and the state government and it is today possible for us to integrate these databases quickly and whatever transfers are to be done, can be done.

The Direct benefit Transfer after Aadhaar came into existence. It has been tried out in several schemes. Whether it is scholarships for the students, pension for old and widows the direct benefit transfer is already happening. Including for eg LPG where DBT scheme is in operation. That means India has got a good experience of handling DBT for different scheme.  If that is so, nothing should be difficult if we want to transfer anything to farmers. I can only say that -- I am not aware of the scheme that the government will bring in. But if and when the government takes the decision, the executive machinery is capable of rising to the occasion and using the existing platform to achieve what the government directs.

The government has come out with an agricultural export policy for the first time. It is a comprehensive policy with an integrated approach to promoting agricultural exports and also building up track and trace backwards. So these are the interventions which are going to take better shape. So I would say that whether it is micro-irrigation or soil health card, or the use of neem coated urea, or the use of ICT advisory's to the farmers, all these things are getting more and more stabilised and with this kind of intervention, all the schemes have got a specific aim.

Either they are there to reduce the cost of production, either to increase the productivity or to ensure better returns. So all these three which have had some lag period of three years, will now start showing better results on 2019-2020.

One more I would like to share with you, that we are also aiming at a new crop geometry and the new crop geometry will ensure that we start moving towards pulses, oil seeds, and nutri-cereals like jowar, ragi, and bajra because they are the crop for the rainfed areas. What government is aiming at is not only to increase the income of the farmers unilaterally, but simultaneously bring about equitability. That means the farmers were earning less must get better.

We have identified that there are 150 districts in the country which are highly drought prone and there at least 29 districts in the country which suffer from a double whammy, they are subject to climate change and simultaneously they are extremely vulnerable to incomes. So, the government is now going to make an intervention in drought proofing this 150 districts and also to address specially these 29 districts which are suffering from double disadvantages of income and climate change implications.